1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to the field of interactive television systems. More particularly, the present invention is drawn to methods and systems for enabling users to easily customize and manage virtually all forms of electronic communications including, for example, all television, video recording, videoconferencing and Internet-related activities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional broadcast or cable television generally is limited to the transfer of information from a content provider to the user. Interactive television, although long forecasted, has thus far failed to materialize as a commercially viable product. In its most basic form, interactive television (hereafter “interactive TV”) includes a TV system in which the flow of information is or can be bidirectional. Generally, conventional interactive TV enables the viewer to interact at some level with the TV and offers an enhanced level of service to the user, which may include video on demand, games and home shopping and banking. Moreover, interactive TV has come to include such functions as PVRs, or personal video recorders, which combine a large storage capacity with a user interface to enable the user to digitally record and playback selected TV shows or events. By significantly simplifying the process of selecting and recording television programs, PVRs have accelerated the trend initiated by the videocassette recorder (VCR) toward time shifted viewing; that is, viewing a previously recorded program at the user's convenience rather than at a schedule dictated by the content provider.
However, current PVRs are believed to be limited in their functionality as they are essentially limited to recording live television and providing the user with access to a number of services such as weather, financial information, TV guide, etc. Conventional interactive TV devices such as those marketed by Tivo, Inc. are believed to be somewhat limited to rendering whatever video stream is provided by the content provider on the user's television screen. In many cases, early so-called interactive TV devices are little more than conventional TV receivers onto which digital decoders and mass storage devices have been grafted. Moreover, such devices inherently provide (often by design) the content provider with a great deal of information concerning the user's viewing habits and the nature of the information selected by the user. What is needed, therefore, is to provide an improved an interactive TV device that affords the user with complete privacy in his or her choice of content and the manner in which such content is viewed, processed and stored. What is also needed is an interactive TV device having a very large bandwidth and processing power, to enable it to receive and process multiple broadband input streams simultaneously. Also needed are devices and systems to provide the user with the means for practical, reliable and high quality full motion videoconferencing for personal, e-commerce applications, gaming and entertainment purposes.